Models of quantity sentences in the Ket language

Abstract

The paper explores the modeling of existential-spatial elementary simple sentences (ESSs) in the Ket language, focusing on the expression of quantity. The syntax of the Ket language has not been previously analyzed in terms of ESS structure and semantics. This study opens prospects for a comparative analysis of ESSs in the Ket language with those in other languages of the areal. The data for the analysis were selected from published folklore and everyday texts. Fixed quantitative ESS models use numerals, quantifiers, and verbs for predicates, with the last type being non-isosemic. The peculiarities of isosemic predicates have been identified. The first is that numerative predicates in sentences quantifying people are used in combination with the word deˀŋ (people) or its analogs, with these combinations usually forming a compound. The second is that predicative combination of quantifiers òn (much) and qomat (little) with the predicative suffix of the third person plural of the masculine and feminine classes –aŋ which tends to become lexicalized and extended to function as the predicative indicator for third person plural in any class. The study revealed that nonisosemic predicates are verbs that signify the ideas of “something is sufficient” and “something is insufficient.” Quantity sentences can have different phasic variants, with quantificational-verbal predicates that allow for the incorporation of the quantifier into the phasic verb. While uncommon, quantifiers and numerals can be used attributively in quantity ESSs, adhering to the structural-semantic quantitative variants of other models. The paper provides the models of the sentences under consideration.